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Man sentenced to 10 years behind bars for raping his girlfriend’s aunt

A 31 year old man, Mmoloki Makombi has been condemned to 10 years behind bars by the Francistown Magistrate Court for raping his girlfriend’s aunt.

The court heard that the unemployed Makombi went to the complainant’s house at Monarch Area 11 on the 28th of May 2015. Makombi found the complainant sleeping alone at her house at 12 midnight. The accused person, the court heard, gained entry through the sitting room door and proceeded to one bedroom where he found the complainant sleeping alone.

As the accused person opened the bedroom door, the complainant woke up, she tried to scream for help but Makombi pounced on her, forcefully removed her panty and raped her without a condom. After completing the act, the accused person then fled the scene and that’s when the complainant managed to identify him as he is well known to her .The complainant then walked all the way from Monarch to the police station to lay charges of rape. Makombi was subsequently arrested and charged with rape.

Handing down sentence last week, Chief Magistrate Thebeitsile Mulalu said the prosecution informed the court that the accused person is a first offender and urged the court to treat him as such. “I therefore treat him as such for the purposes of sentencing in this matter. The accused person did not say much in his plea in mitigation of sentence. He urged the court to impose a lenient sentence on him,” Mulalu said.

Mulalu noted that the accused person stands convicted of an offence that is serious in nature adding that the offence of rape carries with it a minimum imprisonment term of ten years. He lamented that the jail term can only be reduced if exceptional extenuating circumstances are found to exist. The magistrate explained that the evidence in record also reveals that Makombi raped the complainant without caring to use a condom.

He added, “Our country and indeed the world at large, is currently still grappling with the HIV/AIDS scourge. Conduct like the accused person’s, which seeks to potentially undermine efforts to fight and eradicate the HIV/AIDS pandemic, should be seriously frowned upon.” Mulalu highlighted that he carefully went over the facts of the matter at hand in an endeavour to find if exceptional extenuating circumstances exist but he found none. Furthermore, Mulalu lamented that there is nothing that calls for a sentence more than the minimum imprisonment term. “The accused person is sentenced to an imprisonment term of ten years,” Mulalu concluded. End